


Experiments & Memories

by afteriwake



Series: Stuff Of Improbable Legends [37]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Eureka
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, Kittens, Male-Female Friendship, Names, POV Skye | Daisy Johnson, Roleplay Logs, Science Experiments, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 21:56:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5886808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While helping Zane set up for his part in a behavioral studies experiment he's doing, Daisy becomes attached to one of the cats involved and insists on giving it (and the others) names, bringing up memories from their homes and Lawrence in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Experiments & Memories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> And so begins Day 2 of birthday spam for **sideofrawr**! I asked her to choose who she wanted the day to start with and she picked Zane  & Daisy, as we haven't had much with him and anything with her yet in the series. This is another one of the fics that is started with a sentence starter from **toxixpumpkin** on Tumblr (which you can find [here](http://toxixpumpkin.tumblr.com/post/108022477839/ridiculous-sentence-prompts)).

“Please stop petting the test subjects,” Zane said, adjusting the camera on the sleek calico kitten he was trying to keep still.

Daisy grinned up at Zane but did not remove her hand from the head of the kitten she was petting, a fluffy white and grey kitten with little white paws. “This isn’t going to hurt them in any way, right?” she asked as the kitten began purring.

He shook his head. He lifted his hand away from the camera and it _seemed_ to stay on the kitten just fine, and so he moved away. “Nah, they’ll be fine. And I’m only putting the camera on this one.”

“You should give them names,” she said, moving her hand so that she could scratch the kitten under its chin. The purring became louder after she did that and Daisy smiled. “What kind of experiment is this, anyway?”

“Behavioral experiment,” he said. “I’m helping a psychology student at Tulane with something and she doesn’t have space in her dorm to run it so I said I’d set it up in the basement. It’s kind of like when Nintendo did the Neko Atsume live blog thing with the real cats. I have video cameras set up on the environment and the one camera on the kitten, and then I’m just going to let them go crazy over spring break. And she’s going to monitor a group of students who volunteered to be watched while they watch the cats online. She’ll be measuring different responses and stuff.”

“Ah,” Daisy said. She picked up the kitten and then made her way over to the enclosure. It was actually rather large, to her surprise. He’d told her they’d have to cut back on space for their experiments and he hadn’t let her in the basement while he was setting it up, but it put most cat play areas she’d ever seen to shame. “And are you going to make special appearances in the video?”

He shook his head. “I have ways to distribute food and treats without ever being on camera,” he said with a grin. “I mean, if there’s a malfunction I might have to fix something, but I doubt there will be.”

“Is this a live feed just for them?” she asked, moving the kitten closer to her face and pressing her cheek into the soft fur on its back.

“Do you want to spend the whole week watching six cats play?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She frowned. “There’s seven.”

“You look kind of attached to that one,” he said, reaching over to scratch its ears. “I can just tell the person I’m helping that I couldn’t get seven cats and you can take the fluff ball home with you.”

Daisy grinned widely. “Seriously, Zane?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I mean, if nothing else the feed doesn’t go live for another…” He pulled his hand back and looked at his watch. “Five hours. I can try and get another kitten from somewhere else.”

“Or I can give you the kitten back until after this is over,” she said. “And then just come by and bug you for the week.”

“You don’t bug me,” he said with a grin. “I like having you around. It’s nice to be able to talk shop and plot stuff with people. I mean, I’m still trying to get the business off the ground. It’s taking time, even with all the help and the resources. Having you here takes my mind off of it.”

“Well, good.” She took the kitten back to where the other ones were and then looked over at Zane. “Has your partner in all this got the feed taken care of?”

“She was leaving that to me,” he said.

“Then let me help. Having an extra computer tech extraordinaire around to help won’t hurt,” she said. “And if I don’t bug you, it’ll be nice for you to have the company.”

“I suppose,” he said with a sigh. She reached over and punched him lightly in the shoulder and he chuckled. “Hey, don’t hit so hard. I’m just kidding.”

“You know I can hit harder than that.”

“Don’t I know it. I’ve sparred with you often enough.” He nodded over to his computer. “Well, if you’re going to help me run this live feed, you might as well see the set-up.”

“Cool,” she said. They moved over to the computer and he showed her everything he was going to do with it. It was all easy stuff. Child’s play for both of them, really. He pulled over two stools and they both sat down. “How much are you getting paid for this?”

“Five hundred to set up, five hundred after she’s gotten her results,” he said.

She looked impressed at that. “Not bad. Got any plans on spending it?”

“Well, I’m going to have to take care of the kittens till I can find homes for them,” he said, leaning forward to rest his forearms against the edge of his worktop. “So some of it’s going for food, litter, stuff like that. Then…I don’t know. Treat myself to some good food and a few rounds at Alicia and Stefan’s bar?”

“Want company for that?” she asked.

“Always,” he said with a grin. “Though I’ll probably give you part of it for helping, since you don’t have to. At least a couple hundred. I mean, I do pretty well for myself with the tutoring gigs and stuff. This is kind of a bonus so giving you half of the other five hundred won’t hurt.”

She shook her head. “How about a hundred fifty, some of the cat stuff in the enclosure and Mr. Snuggles?”

“Mr. Snuggles?” he asked, raising an eyebrow with an amused look on his face.

“What?” she said. “He liked to snuggle.”

He leaned towards her. “It’s a she.”

“ _Oh,_ ” she said. She thought for a moment. “Think Jemma would mind if I named the kitten after her?”

“Probably not,” Zane said. “But…you could name her after someone else instead, and we can name one of the other kittens Jemma, if you’re going to insist we name them before the feed goes live.”

She grinned at him. “Got a suggestion, then?”

He thought for a moment. “Ada,” he said finally. “For Ada Lovelace, the mother of computers.”

Daisy got a wide smile on her face. “I like it,” she said with a nod. “Ada it is. So that just leaves…?”

“Four girls and two boys,” he replied. “Three girls if we name one Jemma.”

“We have Ada, Jemma...” she said. “And the calico should be Natasha, if it’s a girl.”

“It’s a girl,” Zane said with a nod. “Natasha would have been amused by that. So one more girl name. And probably not something from your home universe, or else it’ll be noticeable.”

“True.” She thought for a moment. “What about from yours? I mean, your show’s been off the air for years. Maybe you could name one of the kittens after your friends? Or two of them?”

“Then one of the boys should be Carter,” he said with a grin. “And the girl…” He was quiet for a moment. “Allison. To go with Carter.”

Daisy looked at him. “You miss the people from your home, don’t you?” she asked.

He nodded. “I’m used to it, though. For a while in Lawrence I had Jo-Jo, even if we weren’t together and it was a mess, but I didn’t think I’d get that lucky out here. But at least I’ve got good friends. It’s something.”

She got up off her stool and stood behind him, pressing her chest into his back and wrapping her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder. After a minute he moved his arms to grasp her arms with his hands, squeezing them. Part of her wished he’d get some people other than Myka from his home universe, people from Eureka, the people she’d seen when they’d sat down and watched his show together. She knew he missed them and she wanted them here so he could be happy. “I shouldn’t have brought it up,” she said.

“It’s cool,” he replied. “We still have to come up with another name for the last male kitten.”

“Fargo?” she suggested in a teasing tone.

“If we’re going to pick someone else from my home universe at _least_ pick someone cooler,” he said, shaking his head slightly.

“I was just joking,” she said. She pulled away and then paced a little bit. “Hmm…maybe Alan? For Alan Turing?”

Zane nodded. “I like it,” he said. “Names for friends and names for history. Works out pretty well, and they’re all nice and easy for people to remember.” He nodded to the computer. “Let’s get it all set up, then, after you figure out which kitten is Carter and which one is Alan.”

“I should probably have you show me which kittens are boys and which are girls so I can decide who gets called what, then,” she said with a grin. Zane nodded and got off the stool and they went back to the kittens. She hoped that it would be a good week, that they would have a fun time doing this. She didn’t want him to be sad or anything like that. And…well, if he was, she’d just have to figure out a way to cheer him up, then, wouldn’t she?


End file.
